If you've ever rented then you may know that sometimes landlords can sometimes be, well, assholes. We've rounded up some of the worst tales from Reddit, Cosmopolitan writers and readers so that hopefully you can take some comfort knowing you're not alone. And then you need to go to the bottom of this article to find out what you can do to make real change.

1.

I used to live with my landlord. I shared a bedroom with her daughter and she slept in the bedroom next door. She'd shout at me for everything including getting just a drop of water on the bathroom floor. So post-showers I'd get on my hands and knees and get every last speckle up with toilet roll (I'd get told off if I used too many towels). I'd then wipe over the sink, taps and clear up for the two daughters as well just in case she thought it was me. I felt like Cinderella. Sadly, no Prince Charming ever rescued me.

Our landlord hired some builders to do some work on our house. At the end of the day he said they had no place to stay and he wasn't going to pay for a hotel. He insisted they stay overnight at ours so they could finish up the repairs the next day. They slept in my housemate's bed (she was away for the weekend) and I came home to broken beer bottles on her floor. Months later when we decided to leave he took £200 from each of our deposits. If it was warranted I wouldn't complain, but we had cleaned everything and it was spotless...much better than when we took over the place from the previous tenant (his son). We, being bad-ass chicks, took him to civil court and won. Asshole.

-Bear_pause, Reddit

3.

My wife just moved out of a flat that poured water into the living room and bedroom whenever it rained. We repeatedly asked the landlord to do something about it; he just gave her a fan and told her to use buckets.

I complained of damp to my landlord for months. After many phone calls and emails he finally came over. When he went down to the basement it was pitch black. It turns out there was over two foot of water there. He got drenched. It was karma for making us live with mouldy walls for so long. (Evil laugh).

-Charlotte Warwick

5.

My landlord told me I didn't have to mow the grass, that he enjoyed it and would occasionally stop by and mow it when needed. Well satan came over every Sunday morning at 6:30am to mow the fucking lawn.

My boyfriend lived in an apartment for five years. One day the gas goes out and we can't figure out why. He calls the landlord and she said she just stopped paying the bill (all bills were included in rent). She pays it, it gets put back on, and then we find out that the house is going to be repossessed. When? "Oh I don't know but you should get out sometime in the next couple of months." Great.

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-Anonymous, Reddit

7.

I rented a place where the electricity was included in the rent, and the landlord once came round and cut the cords on our appliances to bring the bills down.

-Apwnalypse, Reddit

8.

One day I returned to find my drive had been turned into an obstacle from Total Wipeout. He'd put wet cement down without any prior warning and if we tried to walk across we'd sink. So we walked our own makeshift plank everyday.

The first room I ever rented was in a seemingly-nice family home. One day I came home and found out I had 48 hours to get out of their house because I had a box of Tarot cards in a drawer in my room. They'd gone through my things, found it, and claimed I was consorting with demons.

My landlord restricted the use of toilet paper for a week because it clogged the pipes. My father argued it, but the landlord said that this came after warning, despite no warnings being told.

Another time he took our television to watch football as he thought we were gone for the day, and he said "I was going to give it back!" When we called the cops, he said that we gave him permission, and said he was right because "They don't have evidence to prove me wrong."

-Challengeaccepted3, Reddit

11.

@CosmopolitanUK our landlord asked us if he could move into the attic for a month and soon after we had bailiffs call by demanding money.. 😱

Fed up with putting up with this crap (and paying over the odds for the privilege?). Two things: sign our petition to bring increases in rents inline with wages, and secondly: become a property guardian with Cosmopolitan. If you want to live with like-minded readers for up to half the cost, email us at housing@cosmopolitan.co.uk.

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